The Aussie Millions Poker Championship is probably the biggest live festival to be taking place in the Southern Hemisphere on an annual basis. Over the years, the event has gained global popularity with the number and diversity of poker events it features and has attracted some of the world’s most popular and highly selective poker players.

This year the major poker series celebrates its 20th anniversary which will certainly elevate the spirits of both organizers and players who are planning to take part in the poker festivities at the host venue Crown Casino in Melbourne. To celebrate the recent start of the 2018 Aussie Millions, Casino News Daily has prepared a short list of some of the largest payouts awarded to players over the past two decades.

Phil Ivey

Phil Ivey previously made history at the Aussie Millions. He became the only player to ever win three A$250,000 Challenges, an event that dropped from the 2018 schedule of the festival due to lack of interest last year.

Ivey won the tournament in 2012, 2014, and 2015, scooping a total of $8.205 million for his three triumphs. The 2012 edition of the event drew 16 entries, who created a prize pool of A$4 million. Ivey collected half of that amount.

In 2014, the popular poker pro took down the largest ever A$250,000 Challenge for A$4 million. The event had 30 entries and 16 re-entries. The massive interest generated a prize pool of A$11.27 million, which made the event the largest one to have taken place over the festival’s twenty years of running.

Erik Seidel

Seidel, yet another of poker’s heavyweights, is too part of the biggest Aussie Millions winners club. The player won the inaugural A$250,000 Challenge in 2011. He collected a nice payout of A$2.5 million for his efforts. It is also important to note that he beat a field of 20 entries.

The poker professional with live tournament earnings of more than $33.5 million also almost won an Aussie Millions Championship. The player finished second in the 2008 edition of the event. He was one of 780 entries to join the event’s field, and eventually made it to heads-up against Russia’s Alexander Kostritsyn. The Russian took down the Main Event, while Seidel scooped A$1 million for his deep run.

Sam Trickett

England’s most profitable poker player has too performed beautifully in several Aussie Millions tournaments over the years. He boasts a A$250,000 Challenge title as well as a A$100,000 Challenge one. Trickett captured his title from the A$100,000 event first.

He took down the high roller tournament back in 2011. The player collected the amount of A$1.525 million. That year’s edition of the A$100,000 Challenge attracted 38 entries for a prize pool of A$3.8 million. The Englishman was also the winner of the 2013 A$250,000 Challenge. The player emerged victorious from a field of 18 participants. His share of the prize pool totaled A$2 million.

Trickett’s current live poker bankroll exceeds $20.8 million. The player had his best cash ever back in 2012, when he finished runner-up to Antonio Esfandiari in the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for ONE DROP.

Biggest Aussie Millions Main Event Winners

Australian players Stewart Scott, Tyron Krost, and David Gorr (pictured) were the ones to collect the largest payouts for winning the Championship event. They took it in that order in three consecutive years, and all three received A$2 million for their accomplishments.

Scoot took down the A$10,000 buy-in tournament in 2010. The player was the last man standing from a field of 746 entries. Krost beat a field of 721 fellow participants the next year. Finally, Gorr took down the event in 2012, emerging the victor from 659 entries.

This year, the A$10,600 Main Event is slated to kick off on Sunday, January 28, with the first of three starting flights. The tournament will be completed on February 4, when the official final table will take place.